Humans of New York

5 November 2011

Humans of New York is something very special. A photographic census of the most populous city in the United States, it represents the outstanding work of a single photographer. It catalogues the city in a way a normal census never could, through the everyday lives of the humans who inhabit it, lived out on the streets as well as (occasionally) in their homes. So, who is the single human responsible for capturing so many so wonderfully?

Well, once upon a time there was a young man called Brandon Stanton (pictured left) who was a trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. While no Nick Lesson or Kweku Adoboli (we may have heard of him beforehand for other reasons otherwise!) something went badly pear shaped and he found himself jobless.

Blithely, his next career decision was to move to New York City and take photographs of strangers. Like you do. Yet we are so pleased that he made this (ever so slightly barking mad) decision because without that we would not have Humans of New York.

Brandon is the polar opposite of many photographers who conceal themselves in order to catch their subjects unaware. He actively engages his subjects writes many engaging posts about his various conversations and occasional adventures with them. There is also an associated Facebook page too which started as an appendage to the main site which has now acquired a separate life of its own.

Thanks to Brandon, we are able to give you an insight in to this amazing project by reproducing some of his photographs for you. Very generously he gave us free rein in our choice of which we reproduced (he wanted to see which we would decide might embody his work out of a choice of thousands).Click on any of the photographs to go directly to the site so you can choose your own favorite!

Humans of New York is one of those online projects which, once you have entered its world you might find it difficult to withdraw. Some websites come with a health warning (read between the lines!) but if anything, Humans of New York should come with a time warning. You can easily spend hours here perusing the thousands of remarkable portraits of the denizens of this most diverse of cities.

Grab a beverage and whatever else you need at hand when you have the urge to spend several hours on the interweb because you will not want to move from this site for quite a while.